Slow Trains Outside The South-East

Trains connecting Britain’s major towns and cities are up to four times slower outside the South East, according to new research.

Press Association analysis of the quickest possible trains on 19 routes found that services from London travel at average speeds of 65-93mph, compared with just 20-60mph elsewhere.

The slowest route featured in the study was Liverpool Central to Chester, which takes 41 minutes to make the 14-mile journey (as the crow flies) at 20mph.

The example that they give between Liverpool Central and Chester stations, is one that I can use to illustrate the problem.

Currently, services on this route are run by nearly forty-year-old Class 508 trains, that are only capable of 75 mph.

The speed limit on the Wirral Line is just 70 mph, so the well-maintained elderly trains can’t even stretch their legs properly.

The route has thirteen stops.

The timing is dreadful, if you consider that Merseyrail has exclusive use of the line.

The new Stadler Flirt trains are promised to save nine minutes between Southport and Hunts Cross stations, because they are better designed for passenger entrance and exit with faster speed and better braking and acceleration.

Applying this saving to the Liverpool Central to Chester route would reduce the time from 41 minutes to 35 minutes.

If these Swiss trains can get a roll on, I do wonder if they could do the round trip in under an hour, which would mean Merseyrail could run a four trains per hour (tph) service with just four trains. The slower Class 508 trains need six trains.

This logic can apply to a lot of rail lines in the UK.

Conclusion

The reasons for slow trains can be summed up as follows.

Trains are timetabled for the slowest trains that work the route.

A lot of routes, including quite a few in the South-East are timetabled for elderly scrapyard specials.

Line speeds can often be improved by five or ten mph.

Modern trains like Merseyrail’s new Flirts are designed to minimise the time it takes to stop at a station. This is referred to as the dwell time.

Platforms and trains don’t always match up well.

Level crossings can be a nuisance on some lines like the York to Scarborough Line, which has 89 of the little darlings in forty-two miles.

Trains can be speeded up by doing the following.

Improving platforms, track and signalling to the highest possible standard and safe line speed.

Choose trains that can make use of the good infrastructure.

Consign scrapyard specials like Pacers and Class 508 trains to a well-deserved but long-overdue retirement.

Make sure that train entry and exit for wheelchair users, persons of reduced mobility, buggy pushers and wheeled-case draggers is level.

Have well-trained staff and excellent information on the platform.

This is the London Overground’s philosophy and it looks like Merseyrail are applying it.

About This Blog

What this blog will eventually be about I do not know.

But it will be about how I’m coping with the loss of my wife and son to cancer in recent years and how I manage with being a coeliac and recovering from a stroke. It will be about travel, sport, engineering, food, art, computers, large projects and London, that are some of the passions that fill my life.

And hopefully, it will get rid of the lonely times, from which I still suffer.